Through a role-playing game, students discover the inequalities between countries with respect to wealth and greenhouse gas emissions.
The students realise that there are many solutions to deal with climate change, either through adaptation or mitigation, and that many people and organisations are already taking action.
This activity allows students to examine graphs of sea level rise data as well as global temperature data. They calculate amounts and rates of sea level rise for various time periods and answer questions discussing the data. They then compare the sea level rise trends to those in a graph of temperature data.
This is a hands-on lab activity about seawater density. After developing a hypothesis, learners will conduct a simple investigation of density. They will discuss changes in density observed and describe how salt affects the density of water. Background information, common student preconceptions, a glossary and more is included. This activity is part of the Aquarius Hands-on Laboratory Activities.
This interactive visualization provides a clear, well-documented snapshot of current and projected values of several climate variables for local areas in California. The climate variables include observed and projected temperatures, projected snowpack, areas vulnerable to flooding due to sea level rise, and projected increase in wildfires. The projected values come from expert sources and well-established climate models.
This climate model simulates the Earth's climate system by allowing users to toggle different influences on climate (e.g. oceans, atmospheric gases) based on model version used.
The Office for Climate Education (OCE) launches an innovative online course: an opportunity for teachers all over the world to learn how to teach about climate change online and for free.
Students work alone or in groups to draw "cross plots" and make connections between ocean biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. This simple graphical tool helps students understand the interdisciplinary nature of oceanography. It also enables students to apply knowledge to a local area, an ocean, the global ocean, or a topic, such as ocean acidification.
Even experienced divers rarely get to see the Mandarinfish, a colorful reef fish that is so shy, it only comes out of hiding for a half-hour a day. In this video, Jonathan travels to the south Pacific to film spawning Mandarinfish and witnesses an incredible secret ritual. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.
This course is about maneuvering motions of surface and underwater vehicles. Topics covered include: derivation of equations of motion, hydrodynamic coefficients, memory effects, linear and nonlinear forms of the equations of motion, control surfaces modeling and design, engine, propulsor, and transmission systems modeling and simulation during maneuvering. The course also deals with stability of motion, principles of multivariable automatic control, optimal control, Kalman filtering, and loop transfer recovery. We will also explore applications chosen from autopilots for surface vehicles; towing in open seas; and remotely operated vehicles.
This course was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.49. In 2005, ocean engineering subjects became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this course was renumbered 2.154.
Where the tropical ocean meets the sea, a peculiar kind of plant thrives in shallow, salty water. These mangrove plants are incredibly important for shoreline protection and baby fish habitats. In this video, Jonathan investigates life in mangroves by visiting both Caribbean and Pacific mangroves. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.
In this video, Jonathan travels to the Micronesian island of Yap in the middle of the Pacific to investigate large gatherings of the world's largest rayŰÓthe manta. A research program there is tracking dozens of these animals and Jonathan learns what they're doing hanging around certain coral heads every morning. Please see the accompanying lesson plan on tides for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.
This activity introduces students to Greenland ice-melt data derived from passive microwave remote sensing between the years 1979 and 2007. Students make a quantitative comparison between the two years using the mapping program ArcGIS. Students are provided with NASA raster images in GeoTiff form that show Greenland ice melt extent over two of the years on record (1979 ad 2007). Students then draw polygons over these raster files and calculate a change in area between the years on record. While tools exist in ArcGIS to quantify the extent of ice melt using the raster images themselves, drawing polygons is an important and often little-practiced skill in ArcGIS, and is therefore the focus of this activity. This activity can also be modified for more advanced map-makers working with raster files, who need practice using additional tools in the Arc Toolbox. However, raster calculations are not generally a skill covered in an introductory GIS course.
The activity is meant to reinforce important map-making skills (like drawing polygons and creating new geodatabases) using a data set that explores a real-world application of ArcGIS for Earth Science students. While any two (or more!) years on record can be used, 1979 and 2007 have been used to explore extremes in the data. You can learn more about the data set and the GeoTiff images here: http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/. The activity was designed for students with prior mapping skills, but can be modified for those who have little to no mapping experience (step by step instructions can be provided, upon request).
In this activity, students are given a series of world maps showing the different configurations of the continents through geologic history. Working back from the present, students reconstruct the location of past surface currents based on the location of the continents and global atmospheric circulation patterns. Students also need to consider the importance of oceanic gyres in global heat transport by identifying warm and cold currents, as well as, areas that in the past were isolated from hemisphere-scale gyres and as a result, experienced unusually cold or warm conditions.
(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
In this activity, students will learn the difference between sea ice and glaciers in relation to sea level rise. They will create and explore topographic maps as a means of studying sea level rise and how it will affect Alaska's coastline.
In this activity, students create a 2-D colormetric topomap and convert it into a 3-D bathymetric map using modeling clay.
This course covers basic topics in autonomous marine vehicles, focusing mainly on software and algorithms for autonomous decision making (autonomy) by underwater vehicles operating in the ocean environments, autonomously adapting to the environment for improved sensing performance. It will introduce students to underwater acoustic communication environment, as well as the various options for undersea navigation, both crucial to the operation of collaborative undersea networks for environmental sensing. Sensors for acoustic, biological and chemical sensing by underwater vehicles and their integration with the autonomy system for environmentally adaptive undersea mapping and observation will be covered. The subject will have a significant lab component, involving the use of the MOOS-IvP autonomy software infrastructure for developing integrated sensing, modeling and control solutions for a variety of ocean observation problems, using simulation environments and a field testbed with small autonomous surface craft and underwater vehicles operated on the Charles River.
This course is an introduction to chemical oceanography. It describes reservoir models and residence time, major ion composition of seawater, inputs to and outputs from the ocean via rivers, the atmosphere, and the sea floor. Biogeochemical cycling within the oceanic water column and sediments, emphasizing the roles played by the formation, transport, and alteration of oceanic particles and the effects that these processes have on seawater composition. Cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, and sulfur. Uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide by the ocean. Material presented through lectures and student-led presentation and discussion of recent papers.
Students engage with the issue of plastics found in the ocean environment, by exploring products in their homes which contain plastics; they also learn how to calculate the concentration of plastics found in a chosen personal care product.
(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
In this course the fundamentals of fluid mechanics are developed in the context of naval architecture and ocean science and engineering. The various topics covered are: Transport theorem and conservation principles, Navier-Stokes’ equation, dimensional analysis, ideal and potential flows, vorticity and Kelvin’s theorem, hydrodynamic forces in potential flow, D’Alembert’s paradox, added-mass, slender-body theory, viscous-fluid flow, laminar and turbulent boundary layers, model testing, scaling laws, application of potential theory to surface waves, energy transport, wave/body forces, linearized theory of lifting surfaces, and experimental project in the towing tank or propeller tunnel.
This subject was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.021. In 2005, ocean engineering became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this subject was renumbered 2.20.